The secret of 'NCIS'? Northbrook, for starters

Chicago-area native helps make hit show

But the team behind the "NCIS" team — the writing staff of the top-rated CBS drama — isn't finished until the script passes a crucial test:

How many words does Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) say?

If the word count seems too high, the staff starts chopping.

"Mark will read a line and tell us, 'I can say that with a look,'" says Steven Binder, co-executive producer of the series. "The mistake every new writer for 'NCIS' makes is to give Gibbs too much to say."

The taciturn charm of the cool, cryptic Gibbs is one of the keys to the continuing success of "NCIS," Binder says.

And Binder, a 39-year-old native of Northbrook and graduate of Glenbrook North High School whose parents still live in the Chicago area, ought to know. He's been on the production staff of "NCIS" — the initials stand for Naval Criminal Investigative Service — since 2005, and frequently writes episodes of the series, currently the most-watched show on television.

The "NCIS" holiday episode, scheduled to air Tuesday, was written by Binder. Yet like a loyal agent undergoing relentless interrogation by enemy operatives, Binder won't spill; he will divulge only a few skimpy hints about the plot. "Let's just say that Tony DiNozzo will be behaving very differently from what we're used to," he says cagily. DiNozzo, a wisecracking agent on Gibbs' team, is played with gallant goofiness by Michael Weatherly.

"You can get into a rut and just write the characters everybody knows," Binder says. "But I gravitate to stories that put the characters in different situations."

Indeed, the very success of "NCIS" — each episode draws an average of 21.3 million viewers, highly unusual for a series in its eighth season — makes it tricky for writers to find new ways to keep it fresh and surprising. Fans know the "NCIS" personnel well and are loyal to their favorites; a writer can only go so far in mucking around that comfort zone.

Writing an "NCIS" script thus is a special literary challenge. There must be a captivating mystery related to the real-life NCIS mission to solve crimes linked to the Navy and Marine Corps. But something else is required, too. The extraordinary chemistry of the ensemble cast must be a prominent feature. Each script is "a multidimensional, interlocking piece of machinery," Binder says. Minus commercials, "you've got 42 minutes and a very specific format. There's a lot going on."

And few writers pull it off as well as Binder does, according to Shane Brennan, executive producer and show runner — in effect, the boss — of "NCIS," who joined the series four years ago. Brennan also created the spinoff series "NCIS: Los Angeles."

"Steve manages to find dark, complex stories that have a sense of humor," Brennan says. "He goes for detailed stories with a technology edge to them. He doesn't deliver a version of the same old story."

Among Binder's scripts have been one in which a blackout forces the NCIS team to rely on their wits instead of their computers, and one in which McGee's sister is implicated in a murder, forcing him to choose between family and duty.

The series is in production at CBS Television Studios in the Los Angeles area from June to April, Brennan says, creating 24 episodes. Each episode requires about nine days to shoot.

And despite the skills and talents of a variety of people — actors, directors, set decorators, sound engineers, costume and lighting designers, film editors — that are needed to make an episode of a TV show, it all begins in one place: a writer's mind.

For "NCIS," that writer must tap the magical interaction between Gibbs and his team, a family bound not by blood but by patriotism, expertise and a shared sense of purpose.

"Audiences don't remember plots. They remember moments," Brennan says. "You write to the moments. The plot just links up those moments between characters. That's the key to our show."

That — and writers like Binder, who has his own idea about what makes "NCIS" tick: "People like watching capable, competent people getting stuff done."

And they especially like it when Gibbs does it with a raised eyebrow or a stern look instead of a long speech.